Posts by Kingdaddy

Kingdaddy
About Kingdaddy
Kingdaddy is returning to political blogging after a long hiatus. For several years, he wrote about national security affairs at his blog, Arms and Influence, under the same pseudonym. He currently lives in Colorado, where he is still awestruck at all the natural beauty here. He has a Ph.D in political science that is oddly useful in his day job.

In Revolutions, The Worst Often Rise To The Top

The Robespierres in the House of Representatives are driving American politics in a predictably horrible direction.

When Autocrats Get Desperate

Autocrats facing defeat have all kinds of counterproductive, dangerous ideas.

This Is Why I Don’t Like Gangster Movies

You have to be suspicious of people who enjoy gangster movies a bit too much.

The War Drags On

Not only has the war changed, but so have the combatants.

Meanwhile, In The Rest Of The Russian Empire…

Putin must be worrying about losing what little empire he has built.

Very Quickly, Putin’s War Is Likely To Get Even Uglier

The disintegrating military situation is leading to escalating brutality.

Is Putin Predictably Irrational?

Putin is a monster, but he may also be just as irrational as the rest of us.

It’s Not Time To Eulogize The Old Order

Pundits like Thomas Friedman struggle with premature prognostication.

Deterring The Deterrers

Deterring Russia is a matter of principle.

It’s Like 1939, But Better In Some Ways, And Also Worse

The military threat is smaller, but the political one is bigger.

Joe, You Are A Stubborn Old Man

I guess you proved your point about great powers picking and choosing their battlefields.

Senator Joe Manchin Is A Stupid Ape

We’re all apes. And some are willfully stupid about their public duties.

Smart Designers Create Imperfect Rules

Even the smartest designers can’t anticipate all the flaws with the rules they write.

List Of School Shootings In The United States By Death Toll

Our current forms of collective action on guns have failed us.

POTUS Should Be Just A Job

The distance in accountability between the highest and the lowest must be shortened.

The Pendulum Is Broken, Not Swinging

Historical precedents fall apart when we’re in a truly unprecedented time.

Dignity And Efficiency On Inauguration Day

Yesterday showed that Biden understands the “dignified” part of politics.

American Grief And Denial

The Terrorist In The Mirror

There’s a word for people who use outrageous violence to terrorize.

The end of the line

We’ve shouldn’t be surprised we’ve arrived at this destination.

The Faceless Pandemic

It’s easy to mismanage what we don’t have to see.

The Scouring Of The Shire

Saruman’s rigid arrogance ultimately made him pathetic. Sound familiar?

The Fascism Is Here To Stay

While the authoritarian threat recedes, the fascist threat remains.

The High Cost Of Authoritarianism

We spend so much time fighting over who should be in power that we don’t get anything important done.

Will This Be The End Of False Equivalency?

The press’ abandonment of Bothsiderism is decades overdue.

The Line That Divides

Either democracy is sacred, or it’s not.

The Great Disappointment

In Case You Didn’t Notice, COVID Is A National Security Threat

The lawyers can’t clean up the mess left by the President’s sudden incapacity.

More On Expanding The Supreme Court

It’s time to accept the desecration of our political constitution.

We Dismiss Potential Religious Allies At Our Peril

Ignoring religious diversity makes polarization much worse.

This Guy Is Not An Academic

Sorry, UC Irvine, as long as Navarro is on the faculty, no donations from this graduate.

Let’s Drop The “Proto” Already

American fascism is on parade, right now.

Deutschland siegt an allen fronten! Deutschland siegt an allen fronten!

The Abyss Stares Back

The Republican Party is now the mirror image of the totalitarian propagandists it used to hate.

Political Culture Eats Institutions For Lunch

Institutional reform is necessary, but we can’t accomplish much in the face of tribalism.

Stupidity Was The Other Plague We Mismanaged

Having failed to prevent or contain it, aggressive stupidity is now washing over us.

Person Woman Man Camera TV

We can’t punish every politician with a mental problem, but some are clearly unfit for office.

A Timeline Of Nihilism And Fecklessness

How about crowd sourcing a timeline for all of Trump’s enablers?

Conspiracy Theories Are Not Funny

Conspiracy theories are poisoning the United States. That’s no joke.

Fascism Is A Nationalist Aesthetic Movement

Fascism is less about real politics, which is what makes it terrifying.

The Cold War Was A Sobering Influence For A Silly People

As scary as the Cold War was, it did reduce the silliness in American politics.

Let All The Poisons That Lurk In The Mud Hatch Out

This St. Louis couple neatly summarizes what’s wrong with America.

Tulsa Flipped the Script from Horror to Comedy

Something significant was going to happen to Tulsa. Who could have predicted a genre shift?